


well it ain't in the water, it ain't in the wine

by sandyk



Series: worth it [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Identity Reveal, Origin Story, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, but not that identity, pepperony on the side
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:08:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24253360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/pseuds/sandyk
Summary: Peter Parker has two secret identities; Spider-man and the child of Iron Man. The second one is revealed.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: worth it [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1750705
Comments: 10
Kudos: 304
Collections: Trope Bingo: Round Fourteen





	well it ain't in the water, it ain't in the wine

**Author's Note:**

> For the trope bingo spot secret identities. Not mine, no profit garnered. Title from lilly hiatt's somebody's daughter. Thank you A!!

Peter groans because it fucking hurts. Everything hurts but also definitely his ribs are broken. More than one rib is at least cracked. He probably has a broken arm. Maybe a concussion. It's already extremely painful. Like, yes, he has the super fast healing but it doesn't really diminish the pain. And it turns out the pain is so so much. 

He did defeat the bad guy, though. Unfortunately said bad guy starting shooting wild and the entire wall just fucking collapsed on Peter. One strong kick got the wall off him so he has that. He's just lying on his back, feeling lots of pain. 

"Karen," he mumbles. "I bet you've already notified. Already sent for help."

"Of course, Peter," the AI says. 

"Good work," Peter says. He coughs a little which is even more painful. 

"Do do do," he mumbles. 

The spider bite, that first agonizing millisecond and everyone screaming around was terror plus searing pain, so worse than this. Last year, Peter was on the subway, on the way to school from May's. It was, actually, completely random selection, no one thought someone special was in the car. Not that Peter's so special. The bad guys were just trying to demonstrate how lethal they could be. With radioactive spiders, because some people are also nuts. They just have to be so extra. 

Everyone else in the car died from the bites. Peter was still somehow alive when the Avengers came. And they came really quick. Yay for being Iron Man's mostly secret son, with wired on panic buttons and monitoring. It was probably the only reason Peter survived, since he went immediately to the Avengers' doctors who were used to treating weird shit. All the terrorists ended up dead. Peter didn't ask. In general, the Avengers are pretty fond of Peter and they were all pretty upset about Peter nearly dying and all the others who did die. 

Still really hurt a lot, getting bit and nearly dying. And this isn't worse but close. Also not worse but close is thinking about how angry May is going to be. He just convinced her about Spider-man. 

Then he hears the Iron Man suit and passes out.

Amazingly, Aunt May doesn't explode or try to forbid him again from Spider-man. He only has a few days recovery which is awesome. 

Which is exactly when things go a little bit wrong. 

Pepper and his dad are on this thing where they're trying to 'humanize' the great Tony Stark. So instead of Peter being a line on the bio on the Stark Industries website ('Mr. Stark has one son'), Tony is being a little more open. Just a little. He won't post Peter's name, first or last. He won't post pictures that show Peter's face, even baby ones. He won't go into any of the particulars. But he's got a ton of pics with Peter where his face isn't visible or he's wearing a mask. Two months of this. Peter says, "Is it working yet? Have you sufficiently softened up the public so you don't have to sign those Accords?"

He's on the couch, wrapped in three blankets. He peeks out from his cocoon. Pepper is just glaring at him. She says, "The Accords aren't inherently wrong, we just want to make sure Tony is operating from a position of influence. So we make sure the Accords don't infringe on, oh, I don't know, teenage masked vigilantes?"

"So I'm buying my freedom by Dad posting embarrassing pics of me?" Peter burrows back into his blankets. 

"Exactly," Pepper says. 

Tony comes into the living room, humming one of his favorite rock and roll oldies. "Where's the complainer?"

"I have a name," Peter huffs. 

Tony says, "I'm recording, by the way."

Peter slips an ear bud in. "Whatever, man, I'm healing." He turns on his side, tugging his blankets more snugly around him. 

"Are you listening to your music? Your Taylor Swift, Jojo?"

"I'm listening to a podcast," Peter says. "Remember when we had that discussion about what podcasts are?" 

"I know what podcasts are," Tony says.

Pepper says, "Because your son explained them to you."

"I'm aware of the technology, the media, I was joking about how it's basically just radio shows, the kind my father enjoyed," Tony says. "And posting that. With my witty repartee."

It takes two hours for them to realize that there is actually a set of people who know Peter's voice and that he's at home, healing. A whole school of them. 

"OOh, fuck," Peter says. His phone is blowing up, unfortunately, with new follows and friend requests. "All my stuff is private, but --" he shows it to Pepper. 

She blanches. "We should have thought of that. I'm sorry. We're stuck with this, though, no putting the genie back in the bottle."

Tony makes a face. "Well, it's my fault, I'll call May." He looks at Peter. "You know, it's not too late to transfer to a very nice private school. I know a few. I'm also just gonna say … homeschooling."

"No," Peter says. 

He used to be homeschooled. Sort of. Growing up, he was flying between Malibu and Queens. Tony hired a tutor for subjects he thought needed a human touch, the rest he put on JARVIS. Peter was ten when Tony decided to live more in New York, so then Peter started at normal schools. He would have gone back to homeschooling if he hadn't met Ned. Now he likes it. He has friends and afterschool activities. 

And now they all know who he is. 

He still doesn't want to go back to homeschooling. 

No one has ever really cared who Peter's father is. He goes to school in New York, he wasn't the only kid who had a rich dad in Manhattan. But no one cared enough about Peter, good or bad, to be at all curious about his father. No one suspected Peter was the only child of a billionaire genius. Peter only told Ned because they were best friends, and best friends eventually had to be invited over, and even if it was May and Ben's apartment, and best friends had to know why there were so many pictures of Tony and Peter. 

Also, MJ knows because she's now best friends with Peter and Ned and Peter and Ned both suck at being discreet. It's hard to believe Peter's kept the Spider-man thing from them so far. 

Tony drops Peter off at school the next day. Thankfully, he's also rushing and Peter is nearly late for class so no one has a chance to ask him anything. Peter can't skip lunch, though, so he's an open target for a million questions. 

First up is, naturally, Flash. Who says, "Really, you're Iron Man's kid? So is the Parker stuff, your uncle, is that just a cover?"

Peter turns and just stares at Flash. Who takes two steps back. He says, "I guess it was real, okay?"

"Yeah," Peter says. "I'm with my mom, my mom's family and then half the time with my dad."

Flash backs off. MJ says, "You have the ability to have a seriously scary face, dude. That's cool." MJ says, "But also, I was wondering, why is your last name Parker?"

"That, that was my mom's last name when I was born," Peter says. "My mom and my stepdad broke up and then got back together and got married. My stepdad knew my mom was pregnant when they got back together. She was pretty pregnant at the wedding. Actually, he and Dad got along great." Peter remembers being young, sitting on the floor while Dad and Richard were talking so much. He understood some of it, a very little bit. It was pretty high level science stuff. 

"That's sweet," Ned says. "Very understanding of all of them."

MJ says, "But, and don't give me the mean face, why wouldn't you just be with your dad when your mom died?"

Peter says, "Well. That's, that's because Aunt May. She wanted me to stay with her and Ben. Shared custody."

"Oh," Ned says. "Is that why Tony hates her?"

"He doesn't hate her," Peter says. "He just doesn't, you know. Aunt May just wanted to keep me in the family and not only see me once a year. Dad gave in, he would never ever want to put me through court or anything even though he would win easily, because he's not actually an asshole. I think he perceives May wanting shared custody as a judgment on him. He definitely grouses a lot about how there's nothing noble about being middle class." Peter rolls his eyes. "But I wouldn't know, really, Dad and May never ever say anything negative about each other. Like, ever. Trust me, I've tried complaining about them to each other, it never works."

"Darn adults," MJ says. 

Peter thought when Tony first discovered he was Spider-man, he wouldn't tell May. "You know she'll freak out. She doesn't get it."

"I don't get it, Peter." Tony was a lot angry. Very very angry. He clenched his hands in fists but Peter knew his dad would never ever hit him. He never even came close. Peter's never been scared that any of his parents or guardians would ever hurt him. He knows it's a gift. And not one his dad had. 

Tony said, "Is this about Ben?"

"No," Peter said. "No." Peter and Ben had been walking somewhere, going down the street at night and Peter had been just about to tell Ben that he'd realized he had these powers when some asshole running by barrelled into them and then right as Ben was about to say something, the asshole drew a gun and shot Ben. It was awful. Peter has things that make him twinge and flinch out of nowhere and Ben's dying in front of him is one of them. "I'm not trying to avenge something, or whatever, I'm just trying to help people because I can."

"No," Tony said. "No, you're fourteen and you can't." 

Then Tony and May teamed up to look at him very seriously and nearly make him cry with how worried they were for him. 

He tried. He really really tried. But after three weeks, he broke. He heard someone and they were gonna get hurt. He managed to do it for a few weeks, too, before Tony and May confronted him again. She said, "You're not going to stop, are you?"

"I tried," Peter said. "You know I tried."

"It's not your responsibility," May said. "Peter, you are not the only person in the world who can save someone."

"But I am the person who is there and can do it," Peter said, looking imploringly at his dad. 

They had already decided to compromise. Peter had to wear the Spider-man suit his dad designed, he had to accept the constant monitoring and he could only go out Sunday afternoons and two weekdays when he was home by six pm. At least for the first month. After that, May and Tony decided he could be out longer and for one more day a week. 

But they were a united front. 

After Ben's funeral, when May and Peter were in the back of Tony's limo with Tony, going home, May said, "I, I understand if you want, custody."

Tony squinted. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He fiddled with his tie. "Do you actually think I'm going to, come on." He shook his head and then patted Peter's knee. "No, this is it, forever. Shared custody forever."

"Oh," May said. "Good."

Peter brings Ned and MJ home with him, to study, to provide some cover if May's really mad. But she's not, at all. She's happy to see MJ and Ned, she hugs Peter, she asks if school was okay. 

"Peter nearly murdered Flash," MJ says.

"With just his eyes," Ned says. 

"He deserved it, though, right?" May grins. 

"Totally," MJ says. 

Ned says, "But you have to admit, it's super cool having an Avenger, Iron Man, as your dad."

Peter shrugs. May says, "When Tony came back from that cave, Peter was the first person he wanted to see. There's Tony Stark trying to show he's tough, he's together, he can walk on his own, but when Peter comes over, Tony just plops down on the ramp to hug him. He's a very caring father."

MJ says, "If we're letting it all hang out, does he pay you child support?" She looks down suddenly like she's embarrassed she asked. 

"He owns this building and unlike everyone else who lives here, we don't pay rent. We have great wifi, too," May says. 

There's also an impenetrable, fully stocked, survive a nuclear war panic room in the basement. That's where Peter and May and Ben and all the other residents were during the Chitauri invasion. Tony called to say goodbye as he flew into the wormhole. 

Peter's fine remembering that. 

He's fine remembering the Christmas he spent watching the house he grew up in get destroyed and got a friendly 'I'm not dead' call transferred to him from Pepper. He's okay with all of that, none of it blends into a swamp of horror that gives him constant nightmares and he doesn't get anxious when certain things are mentioned. He's great. He's Spider-man. 

After MJ and Ned leave, May says, "How are you, really? With all this out in the open?"

"I'm fine," Peter says. "Today probably wasn't the worst of it. But it wasn't that bad."

May hugs him and pats his back. She's the best at that. She says, "And now you're off to be Spider-man? Please be careful."

"Always," Peter says.


End file.
